Colander.



No. 881,924. PATENTBD MAR. 17, 1908. 1 B. E. HIGGINS 8 H. L. MocoY.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.13.1907.

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plan view of the improved colander.

UNITED STATES IjkrENT oEEIoE.

ELMER E. HIGGINS, OF S'l. PAUL, AND HARRY L. MCCOY, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

COLANDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 17, 1908.

Application filed March 13, 1907. Serial No. 362,202.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that we, ELMER` E. HIGGINS and HARRY L. MCCOY, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at St. Paul and Minneapolis, in the counties of Ramsey and Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Oolanders; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention has for its especial object to provide an improved colander, and to this end it consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and dened in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is `a Fig. 2 is a section taken through the colander on the line x2 me of Fig. l; and Fig. 3 is a detail view in plan of a device which acts as a combination scraper, lock and spring.

The bowl l of the colander in vertical cross section is preferably semi-cylindrical, and the bottom thereof is provided with a multiplicity of small perforations indicated at la. At one Side, the bowl is rigidly secured to the end of a suitable lIand-piece 2, and at its opposite side it is shown as provided with a pair of crooked supporting fingers 3 that are adapted to be applied to the rim of a pan, j ar or other receptacle. Vorking rotatively within the bowl l is a spiral feed blade 4, the convolutions of which extend from a point at the axis of the bowl 1 and increase in radius toward the top of the bowl. The extreme lower portion of the said feed blade is pivotally connected to the lower or bottom portion of the bowl 1 by a headed pin or stud 5 that depends through the said bowl. At its upper end, the feed blade 4 is provided with a fmger-pieee 6 located eccentric to the commonaxis of the bowl, the feed blade and the pivot pin 5, so that the said feed-blade may be radially rotated on said ivot pin. The lower portion of the feed bla e 4 closely engages at one edge with the perforated bottom portion of the bowl.

The numeral 7 indicates a piece of spring wire which is bent upon 'itself to form a bowed segmental body portion 7 l and a finger portion 7 b. Furthermore, the body p01'- tion 7, at its central portion, is bent laterally to form a spring crotch 7, which spring crotch is, in turn, bulged at 7l to afl'ord a pin seat. The linger portion 7b is passed through a perforation in the depending end of the pivot pin 5. Then the bowed body portion 7L is moved upward by a lateral pivotal motion and the bulges 7d of the spring crotch 7" are caused to engage the pin 5 ad jacent to the bottom of the bowl l. lVhen the said spring device is thus applied as shown in Fig. 2, its bowed. body portion presses frictionally against and closely engages the perforated bottom portion l'L of the bolt, and under rotation of the feed blade 4 will act as a scraper to scrape from the bottom of the bowl any material that has been forced through the perforations thereof. The pivot pin 5 should be soldered, riveted or otherwise rigidly secured to the lower end of the feed blade 4. The said spring device when thus applied also serves to yieldingly draw the lower portion of the feed blade against the perforated bottom of the bowl,

and it also serves to lock the said feed blade in working position within the bowl.

The use of a device of this kind is well understood. The material to be worked through the colander is dropped into the bowl l and under rotation of the spiral feed blade 4 it will be fed or pressed downward against the bottom of the bowl, and upon Ieaching the bottom of the bowl will be forced through the perforations thereof under the pressing scraping action of the feed blade. The feed blade has considerable elasticity, so that it will adapt itself to the material within the bowl, but the lower portion of the said feed blade will always be held in close engagement with the perforated bottom of the bowl l. It is important to note that the spiral blade is so formed that there is an axial opening left in the upper portion thereof through which the material to be pressed through the perforated bowl may be fed into the bowl and under the spiral blade.

In practice, the improved colander above described has been found highly efficient for the purposes had in view. The device while especially designed for use as a colander is, nevertheless, capable of use as a sifter for flour and other finely ground material.

That we claim is:

l. In a colander, the combination with a bowl having a perforated bottom, of a tapered s iral feed blade, the lower portion of which c osely fits and is arranged to scrape over the perforated bottom of said bowl, and the upper portion of which is left with an axial opening for the free feed of material into the bowl and is provided with means for rotating said feed blade within said bowl, substantially as described.

2. In a colander, the combination with a bowl having a perforated bottom, of a spiral feed blade rotatively mounted in said bowl and pivotally connected at its lower end to the bottom thereof, and a scraper mounted to rotate with said feed blade and to press against the lower surface of the erforated bottom of the bowl, substantially as described.

3. In a colander, the combination with a bowl having a perforated bottom, of a spiral feed blade rotatively mounted therein and pivotally connected at its lower end to the bottom thereof, and a combined spring and scraper arranged to rotate with said feed blade, to pass over the under surface of the perforated bottom of the bowl, and to yieldingly draw the lower end portion of said feed blade against the upper surface of the peri forated bottom of the bowl, substantially as described.

4. In a colander, the combination with a bowl having a perforated bottom, and a handle, of a spiral feed blade rotatively mounted in said bowl, pivotally connected at its lower end to the perforated bottom thereof in line with the common axis of said bowl of the bowl and feed blade, a pin or stud 5 1 y secured to the lower end of said feed blade and depending through the perforated bottom of the bowl, and a combined scraper,

lock and spring device constructed from a piece of spring wire bent upon itself to form the bowed scraper portion 7 a, spring linger 7b and crotch 7C with bulged portion 7d, the said iinger portion 7b being insertible through a perforation in the depending end of said pin 5, the bulged crotch portion 7d being engageable with the body of said pin, and the said scraper portion 7 a being engageable with the under surface of the perforated bottom of the bowl, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

ELMER E. HIGGINS. HARRY L. MCCOY.

Vitnesses z MALIE HoEL, F. D. MERCHANT. 

